Private tour to Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro

Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro is the largest Art Deco statue in the world. It is 30 meters high, in addition to the 8 meters of the pedestal. It measures 28 meters from hand to hand and weighs 1,145 tons. The monument is located at the top of Corcovado Hill, 710 meters above sea level.

Tip: Book a private tour guide in Rio de Janeiro

The statue took nine years to be unveiled – five of them dedicated to construction. The work was completed in 1931 and was largely funded by the population itself, thanks to a collection campaign created by the Catholic Circle of Rio de Janeiro in 1920. The monument was inaugurated on October 12, 1931, the day of Our Lady of Aparecida.

The Brazilian engineer Heitor da Silva Costa is responsible for the bold architectural project: the statue can withstand winds of up to 250 km/h, equivalent to a category 5 hurricane. Christ the Redeemer has a reinforced concrete structure and is covered with triangular soapstone plates. Inside the building is hollow, with 4 retaining pillars, diagonal beams and 12 slabs, connected by stairs.

The design of the statue is Brazilian, but it was sculptured in France, by the Franco-Polish sculptor Paul Landowski. He used the hands of the poet Margarida Lopes de Almeida as a model for the hands of Christ – each one measures 3.2 meters. The face was created by one of Landowski’s team members, the Romanian sculptor Gheorghe Leonida.

The statue was split into pieces to be transported to Brazil. The heavy pieces were transported to the top of the Corcovado by train, which runs until today. The team, led by engineer Heitor Levy, is made up of around 1,000 workers, architects and engineers.

Inside the 9th slab, at the height of Christ the Redeemer’s chest, there is a heart of about 1.3 m, also covered with soap stone tiles, visible only from the interior of the building. In the heart there is a bottle with Heitor Levy’s family tree as a sign of his faith: at the time of construction, Levy – who was Jewish – suffered a car accident and, escaping alive, converted to Catholicism. The head of the sculpture measures 3.75 m and weighs 30 tons. It was made with 50 pieces, it is hollow and has an exit to the top of the statue. Above the head of Christ the Redeemer there is a crown of thorns, it also serves as lightning rod, as it is one of the highest points of the city of Rio de Janeiro.

Why take a private tour of Christ the Redeemer statue?

In general, some of the advantages of taking any private tour are:

• Save time
• Avoid long lines
• Learn about the site
• Avoid waste of time

Tip: include also a private tour to SugarLoaf Mountain